The present disclosure relates to a vibrator.
A vibrator, a device converting electrical energy into mechanical vibrations through the generation of electromagnetic force, is mounted in a mobile phone, or the like, to be used for silently notifying a user of call reception. In addition, as the market for mobile devices such as a mobile phones and the like has rapidly expanded, and various functions have been added to such mobile devices, mobile devices having small sizes and high quality have been demanded. In this situation, the need to develop vibrators having new structures, capable of overcoming the disadvantages of existing products, and having significantly improved quality has also increased.
Further, as the release of smartphones, among mobile phones, has rapidly increased, a touchscreen scheme has been adopted, such that adoption of a vibration motor has been increased in order to generate vibration at the time of touching the smartphones. Performance particularly required in the vibration at the time of the touch of a touchscreen is as follows. First, as the amounts of vibrations generated in devices, in response to touches, has increased to be greater than vibrations generated at the time of call reception, an operational lifespan of vibrators needs to be increased. Second, in order to increase user satisfaction when a user experiences vibrations in response to a touch, vibration response speeds need to be increased in accordance with a touch speed of the screen.
As a product capable of implementing the characteristics as described above, there is provided a piezoelectric haptic actuator. Such a piezoelectric haptic actuator uses the principle of a converse piezoelectric effect, in which displacement of a piezoelectric element is generated when a voltage is applied thereto, and vibratory force is generated by allowing a mass body of a mover to move by the generated displacement.
A vibrator having this structure may be characterized in that a frequency band width capable of obtaining a predetermined level of vibratory force or more is wider, such that stable vibrational characteristics may be implemented, and vibrations having a low or high frequency, rather than a single frequency, may be variously used within a predetermined frequency range. In addition, since rapid operational response characteristics may be implemented with the use thereof, the piezo haptic actuator may be suitable for implementing haptic vibrations in mobile devices such as mobile phones, and the like.
Meanwhile, a circuit board may be installed on the piezoelectric element, and external power is supplied to the piezoelectric element through the circuit board. However, in the case in which the piezoelectric element is installed on an elastic plate, the circuit board should be installed on a surface opposite to the surface on which the piezoelectric element is installed.
In this case, it may not be easy to connect the circuit board and the piezoelectric element to one another. Further, during driving of the piezoelectric element or in the case that an the shock of an external impact is transferred thereto, solder used for coupling the circuit board and the piezoelectric element to each other may be detached, or the circuit board and the piezoelectric element may be separated from each other.